There was a crow sat on a stone,
He flew away--and there was none!
There was a man that run a race,
When he ran fast--he ran apace!
There was a maid that eat an apple,
When she eat two--she eat a couple!
There was an ape sat on a tree,
When he fell down--then down fell he!
There was a fleet that went to Spain,
When it returned--it came again!
Another expedition to Rochelle, under the Earl of Denbigh, was indeed of
a more sober nature, for the earl declined to attack the enemy. The
national honour, among the other grievances of the people, had been long
degraded; not indeed by Buckingham himself, who personally had ever
maintained, by his high spirit, an equality, if not a superiority, with
France and Spain. It was to win back the public favour by a resolved and
public effort, that Buckingham a second time was willing to pledge his
fortune, his honour, and his life, into one daring cast, and on the dyke
of Rochelle to leave his body, or to vindicate his aspersed name. The
garrulous Gerbier shall tell his own story, which I transcribe from his
own hand-writing, of the mighty preparations, and the duke's perfect
devotion to the cause; for among other rumours, he was calumniated as
never having been faithful to his engagement with the protestants of
Rochelle.
"The duke caused me to make certain works, according to the same model
as those wherewith the Prince of Parma blew up, before Antwerp, the main
dyke and estacado; they were so mighty strong, and of that quantity of
powder, and so closely masoned in barks, that they might have blown up
the half of a town. I employed therein of powder, stone-quarries, bombs,
fire-balls, chains, and iron-balls, a double proportion to that used by
the Duke of Parma, according to the description left thereof."[241]
"The duke's intention to succour the Rochellers was manifest, as was his
care to assure them of it. He commanded me to write and to convey to
them the secret advertisement thereof. The last advice I gave them from
him contained these words, 'Hold out but three weeks, and God willing I
will be with you, either to overcome or to die there.' The bearer of
this received from my hands a hundred Jacobuses to carry it with speed
and safety." The duke had disbursed threescore thousand pounds of his
money upon the fleet; and lost his life ere he could get aboard. Nothing
but death had hindered him or frustrated his design, of which I am
confident by another very remarkable passage. "The duke, a little before
his departure from York House, being alone with me in his garden, and
giving me his last commands for my journey towards Italy and Spain, one
Mr. Wigmore, a gentleman of his, coming to us, presented to his lordship
a paper, said to have come from the prophesying Lady _Davers_,[242]
foretelling that he should end his life that month; besides, he had
received a letter from a very considerable hand, persuading him to let
some other person be sent on that expedition to command in his place; on
which occasion the duke made this expression to me: 'Gerbier, if God
please, I will go, and be the first man who shall set his foot upon the
dyke before Rochel to die, or do the work, whereby the world shall see
the reality of our intentions for the relief of that place.' He had
before told me the same in his closet, after he had signed certain
despatches of my letters of credence to the Duke of Lorraine and Savoy,
to whom I was sent to know what diversion they could make in favour of
the king, in case the peace with Spain should not take. His majesty
spake to me, on my going towards my residency at Bruxelles--'Gerbier, I
do command thee to have a continual care, to press the Infanta and the
Spanish ministers there, for the restitution of the Palatinate; for I am
obliged in conscience, in honour, and in maxim of state, to stir all the
powers of the world, rather than to fail to try to the uttermost to
compass this business.'"
In the week of that expedition, the king took "George" with him in his
coach to view the ships at Deptford on their departure for Rochelle,
when he said to the duke, "George, there are some that wish both these
and thou mightest perish together; but care not for them; we will both
perish together, if thou doest!"
A few days before the duke went on his last expedition, he gave a
farewell masque and supper at York-house to their majesties. In the
masque the duke appeared followed by Envy, with many open-mouthed dogs,
which were to represent the barkings of the people, while next came Fame
and Truth; and the court allegory expressed the king's sentiment and the
duke's sanguine hope.
Thus resolutely engaged in the very cause the people had so much at
heart, the blood Buckingham would have sealed it with was shed by one of
the people themselves; the enterprise, designed to retrieve the national
honour, long tarnished, was prevented; and the Protestant cause suffered
by one who imagined himself to be, and was blest by nearly the whole
nation as, a patriot! Such are the effects of the exaggerations of
popular delusion.
I find the following epitaph on Buckingham in a manuscript letter of the
times. Its condensed bitterness of spirit gives the popular idea of his
unfortunate attempts.